We’re marketers so we do love inventing new technical terms. It may as well be one of the main reasons we work in this strategic industry in the first place (not really, but we’re trying to make a point here). So it should come as no surprise when we apply acronyms to our own business. Hopefully you know this because you’re already on this page, but we’re Seo Rank Boster, The Part-Time CMO.
But we also know that many think that their marketing department and marketers in general are full of BS. Sometimes, they might actually be right. With or without years of experience, all marketing executives are guilty of polishing a turd or two in an effort to make the mundane aspects of our profession sound amazing to unsuspecting business owners.
Therefore, although we know deep down in our heart of hearts that Part-Time Chief Marketing Officer (Part-Time CMO), Fractional Chief Marketing Officer Fractional CMO, and Marketing-as-a-Service are all basically the same way to say that we’re not a full-time chief marketing officer (full-time cmo)…
Even so, at Seo Rank Boster we recognize that there are some limitations to marketing. One of them is the inability of even the greatest words to make something basic into something truly extraordinary. This is especially the case when applied to startup marketing at the early stage.
we get it. What the hell do any of them mean anyway? And why do we feel the need to define each and explain why we prefer to use some over others?
CMO-as-a-service
Let’s begin with the most obvious. Or should we say, the one we like the least. I mean, is it even possible to say you do ‘Marketing-as-a-Service’ with a straight face? Isn’t all marketing a service? Even if you have a bunch of full-time team members in your fully stocked marketing department, don’t they also offer a service? Agencies also offer a service, so do consultants.
We offer a service (even though we don’t like calling ourselves an agency or a consultancy, hence Part-Time CMO). We sometimes wish we didn’t because, let’s be real here for a minute, people… scaling a service business is really, hard and sometimes. If we could turn everything we do into an automated process and deliver the same outcomes, we would… but in the end, we accept the fact.
We get it. The term “CMO as-a-service” exists to try and describe all outsourced marketing initiatives: like it is a bolted on thing, with teams of people behind it and maybe they respond via a help desk or hotline. That’s cool if that’s your way. We also have teams of specialists as well. But Marketing-as-a-Service is not a good way of describing what we do.
The other issue with it is that it implies you have a good idea what is missing from your current marketing strategy: that you can choose a shopping list of things and simply add them on. Whether lead generation or social media management, you choose your provider, and they provide a service. Sure, we can do that too. But it is our experience of the early stage that most business owners and founders don’t actually have much of an idea what they need to change. Offering a services for this problem, would not therefore be the right fit for this type of business. They need leadership, strategy and the benefit of years of experience in marketing.
If you’re a CMO-as-a-service person, that’s great. No offence intended and we wish you good luck with that. You’re just not going to hear us ever say it.
The Fractional CMO.
This one makes more sense than Marketing-as-a-Service, but Fractional Chief Marketing Officer or Fractional CMO)isn’t a term that is widely used in Europe, although it is changing The way we see it, it’s an Americanism that gathered some momentum in the United States, where companies use the term ‘Fractional’ as a title for any c-suite executives or senior role where the person doing the job isn’t an employee. Data from Google Search Trends backs this up. As far as we can tell, Fractional CMO services trace their genesis to the period when ‘Fractional CFO’ began to be widely used
We don’t like it. In fact, to us, it doesn’t really make any sense. If you’re hiring someone as an external expert but you want them to function as a part of your team, then why make them sound like they’re less than whole? It sounds like you only get a section of them: their time for sure, but maybe also their brain, their attention, or their concern about your business. Don’t forget there are many ways that someone can take on a leadership role or join the leadership team in your organisation and not be present and available for the majority of the time. Think of board positions and the chairperson of public companies, or even just an interim CEO. So when we hear the word fractional CMO or fractional Chief marketing officer, we think it doesn’t accurately reflect the role we play as experienced marketers who provide marketing leadership. Instead it diminishes it to something that is an ‘almost, but not quite’ type of role. And for us, that is the polar opposite of what we propose to deliver for our clients.
why call it Part-Time CMO?
Well, for starters, because we are not always there. Not a full-time employee after all (that would make us an entirely different business. Or not even a business. Plus we wouldn’t be writing this blog in that case). Simple as that. Your Part-Time CMO can reach out for anytime during working hours of your choice as far as the contract with us, you, or your marketing department. This is what our clients pay for and particularly, to business owners and even more to early-stage startup founders. We start with those specific projects and specify how many hours we expect to take to reach our goals once we have entered the deal with you as our part-time CMO. Both of us will have some measure of flexibility and it will help us narrow down: what are
Part-Time CMO
Spoiler Alert: Part-Time CMO is the option we prefer. This is the most common and, in our opinion, the best way to explain what we do in clear terms.
This is quite simple: the idea behind every early-stage startup that we work with is to function as part of your team even though we are not an employee. And that is what we are at part-time, and although we are obviously not a full-time executive, we care about your business in the same way that your employees and the founders do. A little like a tennis players. Sure, over the years there have been a few that are mercenaries, but the good all.
the most important things we should work on to make effective changes in to help deliver business growth? What kind of marketing leadership is missing from your business and in what way could we help provide that to your full-time employees? We will have pinpoint focus on these areas, and if that is all we can manage as a part-time cmo, you will find out just as soon as we do. We will be your single contact point and keep you updated on progress if you are found in a situation where no single full-time employee oversees marketing. If, however, your organization has a department dedicated to marketing, we agree and drive them towards the same goal. We’re certainly not going to do this on a full-time basis.